Nan Kennard Never Runs on Sundays

The emerging road racer is dedicated to her deep-rooted faith

A magnet holds Nan Kennard's weekly training plan to the refrigerator. Next to it is a far more important schedule, though: her family's weekly activities outlined on a

standard sheet of white paper. Sitting down each Sunday night, she and husband Aaron plan each of their training runs and full days for their three children, ages 6, 4 and 2. Aside from church, Sunday remains open on the calendar, a lone zero mileage day for the devout Mormons.

For Kennard, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom living in Boulder, Colo., fitting everything in is the greatest challenge to her training.

A typical day is filled with walking Abe to school, joining Breanne in a gymnastics class and reading to Ali, among many other activities. Mid-morning, she might sneak in an interval session on the treadmill. Vacuuming the house serves as typical cross-training. When Aaron, a real estate investor, returns home, she'll head out for a second run. Challenges aside, Kennard emerged onto the national racing scene in 2010 and appears to be a viable contender for the 2012 U.S. Olympic marathon trials.

At dinner one night, she encourages her kids to eat their vegetables, without the force of "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua, but with hope that they'll grow independently and make their own decisions. The kids ultimately skip over the vegetables and instead gather around an iPad to watch dinosaur cartoons. They later return to the table for dessert as Kennard recalls racing at January's national half championships in Houston, where she was third in 1:12:03, one of several prominent top-three finishes in the last couple of years.

Kennard emerged on the national scene in 2010 with a third-place showing at the U.S. 20K championships in New Haven, Conn. After several years in which her focus was on starting a family, she now often trains alongside the ageless Colleen De Reuck. Colleen's husband, Darren, coaches both and has guided Kennard back to competitive form over the past two years. Collectively, they look forward to further improvement this year, ultimately working toward the Olympic marathon trials.

Colleen is a four-time Olympian who won the Copenhagen Marathon in 2:30:51 at age 46 last year. Darren sees her same competitiveness and aggressiveness in Kennard, and is "expecting her to shake it up next year at the trials."

Houston might have been her most impressive finish to date, but the 2007 Ogden Marathon just north of Salt Lake City remains her most dear. Running on more heart than leg power, she won that race, her marathon debut, in 2:58:33. "I was crying so much the last 200 meters," she says, with 2-year-old Ali on her lap. A strong and confident woman, tears don't come easily for Kennard, but with her father growing ill, it was the last race that she was able to share with him. A huge inspiration and part of her success in running and in life, she continues to draw on his memory while racing.

When she pushed the pace in the half marathon in Houston she says it was thoughts of her late father and of her kids giving her strength. Her two youngest were born naturally at home, with the aid of a midwife. Her face fills and her eyes lift with emotion at the memory of the birthing process. "An incredibly empowering experience," she says, calling it the greatest feeling she's ever known. A new personal record or top finish, regardless of how great, both fall unquestionably short of the joys motherhood has brought her.
The kids are being raised to lead balanced and active lives. All enjoy hiking as a family in the foothills west of their home, particularly on Sundays, a day largely devoted to the family. The Kennards take the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy seriously, thus Kennard doesn't run, let alone race, on Sundays. "I think there are better ways to spend the Sabbath than running," she explains.

Running just six days per week, her mileage has topped out in the mid-70s--quite a bit lower than most national-class marathoners. Still, the six-day cycle didn't keep her from becoming a high school state record-holder in the 800m, an All-American in the steeplechase at BYU and now one of America's top road racers.

At BYU, Kennard was part of an NCAA champion cross country team in 2001 and 2002 under coach Patrick Shane. Many might see the six-day cycle as a limitation, but he credits the built-in rest day for the team's success.

"Anyone can work really hard, but being smart in your training loads is more important. Recovering from hard training is key," says Shane, who has guided his teams to four NCAA titles. His training program thus aligns well with the Mormon religion encouraging Sunday as a day of rest.

Kennard is certainly not the first Mormon athlete to balance competitive running with faith. Two-time Olympic marathoner and current BYU men's coach Ed Eyestone and marathoner Josh Rohatinsky, the 2006 NCAA cross country champion at BYU, are among those who faced the dilemma of running on Sundays.

"Because I ran up to 115 miles per week, it was very difficult to get it all in within six days," Rohatinsky says.

"Most weeks I somehow did it, but there were weeks where I needed to go out and get a few miles in on Sunday." Still, to keep Sunday's focus on his family, he always made any Sunday miles unstructured, simply an easy run by himself.

Kennard's faith certainly influences her training, but she says she also often feels the benefit of a divine power during races--something also not ignored post-race. The Mormon religion encourages members to give 10 percent of their income and, for Kennard, that includes her recent string of race winnings--most recently the $5,000 she earned for her second-place finish at the U.S. 15K championships on March 12 in Jacksonville, Fla.

"Absolutely, any increase," she says without hesitation about prize money's inclusion in the family tithe.

Kennard has been fortunate to race on Saturdays and, in the case of this year's Boston Marathon, on Monday, to this point. She's well aware that the Olympic Marathon in London will be held on a Sunday and that this could set up a modern-day "Chariots of Fire" internal struggle. Shrugging the question off, Kennard smiles and looks to her family, thinking instead about the next week's calendar.

"My faith, my husband, and my kids are my top priorities and they all give me motivation and confidence to magnify my talent and become my best self," Kennard says. "While I absolutely love running and am grateful for my ability to run fast, no race I run or PR I set will ever compare to how much I value my faith and my family. Sometimes I feel like I am juggling a hundred little marbles and I notice some drop to the floor. Gratefully, my husband, my heavenly father, and probably some guardian angels are looking after me and enabling me to do the best I can with what I am given."